Insulating the rest of the house from a glass-roof conservatory

[m95]

I currently have a double-glazed glass-roof conservatory which is of good quality. It has a decent level of insulation - it's fairly warm and quiet in there, almost like a normal-ish room, and is hugely better than other polycarbonate ones I've had in the past. Whilst it's great for adding extra space, there is no heating in there aside from a portable oil-filled radiator, and there is no door/separation at all between the main living area and the conservatory. It is manageable, but there is a cold draught coming through and it is difficult to get the living area far above 19c in the winter.
At the moment, it's not really an option to replace it with a proper extension or a tiled roof. I'm not sure idea of what could be actually effective to solve my problem, without massively encroaching on the space. A sliding door or french door could be good for insulation, but would move away from the open-plan feature of it.
The opening gap is 2.7m wide and approx 2m tall, with approx 0.6m wide walls either side which a door could fit to/fold onto.
The ideas I've thought of so far:

1. An external bifold door - this would no doubt be effective as an insulator and would meet building regs, but when folded up could take up a lot of space on one side, and make it harder to use the room.
2. An internal bifold door - similar concept to this: https://www.vufold.co.uk/case-studies/finesse-internal-bifold-doors-helps-prevent-heat-loss-from-the-conservatory - this has a single-glazed panes of 4mm safety glass, and an "engineered wood" core with an oak veneer.

And I also looked at this - which enables folding of the doors against the wall to fully save space: https://www.vufold.co.uk/internal-bifold-doors/inspire/inspire-2700mm - however, I am not sure or convinced that this will make a significant difference to the insulation between rooms.

1. A thermal curtain
2. Thermal blinds in the conservatory

Has anyone had a similar dilemma with an opened up conservatory and found a good solution? Would an internal-grade door such as the one shared make a real difference, or would any other solutions help? Thanks

My old house had a lean to which was really poorly constructed and had a corrugated plastic roof. The only door between that and the lounge was the original external door, which was wood and single glazed glass. Having that door closed made a huge difference, so I'd have thought that the ones you've linked above would be fine.

Thanks for your response, that sounds promising; do you recall if it had many gaps around the frame and a large area of glass?

Could you fit two sliding doors?

Please can I ask what type of roof you have, we have inherited a conservatory and are toying between pilkington active glass and a polycarbonate roof with glass panels, want to use the room all year round and will have central heating in there, we will have an aluminium bifold. Sorry for hijacking your thread

Thank you - it's possible; although, it would leave a pillar in the middle and there is limited space for the doors to slide out to open. Also, the rails on the floor could be a trip hazard for my 2 year old.

I am thinking now of, considering the conservatory isn't overly cold, instead fitting the living room (140cm gap open at the moment) with glazed fire doors to keep that room warm and insulated. An internal door I'm thinking may help a lot, but the gaps around it could be an issue and still not be ideal

Thermal curtains on both sides of the opening for me.

No worries at all, it is a glass roof (also inherited). I think the issue for me is that, the roof is a weak point and really according to building regs there should be a door there (solicitor missed that part). However, it is not especially cold and it's liveable in winter. Downside is, the living room (open plan all the way through) is not very cosy/warm. The windows all around the conservatory are pretty decent, think the roof is the weak point even though it is double glazed glass.

I would suggest, honestly, to avoid a polycarbonate roof at all costs - I had one in my old house and it was an unusable room. On the other hand I know that conservatory roof replacements can be around £10-15k for proper roofs, not sure about glass.

I'm not a fan of conservatories, the one I have is good but alas still a conservatory with the associated lack of insulation.

We used bifold internal doors and a bifold wooden-framed window to separate off a conservatory from a kitchen in winter. The kitchen has no other windows so we had to use glass to retain natural light.

We had to get both made by a joiner because the sizes weren't regular. I think he also used tempered glass to keep the heat in. You can see tiny gaps between the joins but it's still made such a huge difference and I'm so glad we did it.
I don't dread going through to cook now, even on freezing days.

We have internal doors between the living space and conservatory and if it’s really cold a pair of curtains goes up. The conservatory does have central heating radiators in there. You could try with just thick curtains to start with and then they could be taken down when it’s warmer

You don't have a pillar in the middle, and sliding doors can be 'top hung' so there is no need for a rail at the bottom. It is what we have, although I can't load a picture to show you. Search 'sliding door top hung' and you will see some examples.

Thanks really interesting, did you get sealing around it too? Do you think it makes a difference on sound insulation from the conservatory roof?

Surely you can use standard internal doors,glass of you wish. We had the fancy new pilkington glass 6 years ago, for the conservatory roof,it cost £7000,it hasn't made any difference.a solid roof at that time was more than double that. We do have 2 radiators in there, though because we use it all year.

I have inherited a polycarbonate conservatory with radiators linked to our central heating. We also have a pair of external doors like what you shown between the living room and the conservatory. It's totally fine once the doors are closed, similar to the kitchen which opens up to our garden. I think if you have external doors installed, the temperature in your living room will be fine.

I don't think he sealed it.
Sound - yes. We used to hear the rain very loudly on the glass roof. Can now hear it very faintly if it's properly throwing it down. There's no track on the floor so when we open it up in spring, it doesn't look weird.

I would install internal double doors. I think it looks wrong if you try to put external doors like sliders or bifolds in. It looks as if you just tacked the conservatory onto the back of your house leaving the original outside door there.